Collin County jury sentences man to five years in prison after wreck that killed 2 teens

A Collin County jury has sentenced 21-year-old Joshua Bartlett of Princeton to five years in prison on the two manslaughter counts and two years on each of the four aggravated assault charges.

The sentences will be served at the same time.

Bartlett must serve at least half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.

Original:

A Collin County jury is deliberating punishment for a man convicted last week after getting behind the wheel of a car while drunk, losing control while speeding through a curve and crashing, killing two teens and injuring four others in Princeton.

Joshua Bartlett, 21, of Princeton was found guilty on two counts of manslaughter and four counts of aggravated assault of a deadly weapon. He faces up to 20 years in prison. Jurors also have the option of sentencing him to community supervision.

During the trial jurors learned Bartlett and his friends had been out partying and drinking that night of Nov. 9, 2013, and into the early morning hours. At one point, seven of them piled into a Mazda hatchback that has seat belts for only five people. Police say only the front passenger was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.

Bartlett was driving 117 mph on a road posted for 45 mph early when he crashed.

Cody Hensley, 17, and Stephan Chaney, 17, were pronounced dead at the scene near Monte Carlo and Florence drives around 4 a.m. The other five were taken to the hospital with various injuries. Hensley was a senior at McKinney North High School. Chaney was a senior at Princeton High School.

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Bartlett's friends in the car were begging him to slow down the night of the crash, prosecutor Sarah Fox told jurors during closing arguments.His blood alcohol content at the hospital was .168.

That night, "he took that 90-degree curve and never hit the brakes," Fox said.

Defense attorney Brook Busbee said that youthfulness and recklessness go together and that all of the teens in that car had been involved in drinking and partying that night.

"It could have been any of them driving and any of them killed that night," she told jurors.

She told jurors that Bartlett was taking responsibility for his actions. "He is broken-hearted about what happened to him and his friends," she said. "He can't remember that night. It has hurt him too."

Prosecutor Zeke Fortenberry said Bartlett's actions called for a minimum of 15 years in prison in part because of the egregiousness of the offenses. Fortenberry agreed with the defense that the young man's actions weren't intentional that night. "But when it gets to recklessness, this is about as reckless as it gets," he told jurors.

Busbee asked that jurors sentence him to community service, saying that the judge would impose terms for that community service that would make this a more positive experience for everyone involved. "If you send him to the penitentiary, he won't come back as the good kid he is now," she said.

Fox reminded jurors that Bartlett had been arrested for speeding on Oct. 23, 2011. He was also arrested on Feb. 27, 2012, for driving under the influence when he was 17 years old. He was sentenced to probation and required to take an alcohol education class. And on April 26, 2013, he was again cited for speeding - 89 mph in a 45 mph zone on the same road where the fatal crash occurred. He was 19 when the most recent wreck occurred.

"Our justice system has tried desperately to deter this defendant," Fox told jurors. "It was unsuccessful.

"Prison is the only thing we have left to protect our community," she said.